EA June 2011

More than three months after the beginning of the military campaign in Libya, the outcome
remains unpredictable, at least in its final shape and its aftermath. Already, however, the transatlantic partners are starting to draw some first lessons from the intervention.

Cheered in the EU and the U.S., the “Arab spring” also raised the specter in Europe of a destabilizing wave of Arab and African refugees across the Mediterranean seeking to settle in Europe. That surge of fear turned out to be alarmist, at least in terms of actual numbers. So far, comparatively few of the refugees in the exodus from Tunisia and Libya have actually turned up on European soil.

Wednesday, 15 June 2011 14:53
Book Review by William Marmon -- Managing Editor of European Affairs

Google has outgrown its childhood as a prodigy and its adolescence as the only wunderkind on the block. The company was only started 13 years ago, but in “Internet years” that is a generation, and now Google often finds itself in the unaccustomed situation of “chasing tail-lights” in an effort to keep up with the new digital darlings such as Facebook and the “social media” phenomenon. And Google, like any hard-driving grown-up, has accumulated critics and challengers. Anti-trust authorities in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere have become increasingly attentive and aggressive. Privacy advocates have raised concerns about Google maintaining the fresh dominance that has characterized it in years past. Nowadays, the company is regarded in some quarters as “evil” or at least “potentially evil,” rendering its slogan “don’t be evil” ironic as well as jejune.

Wednesday, 15 June 2011 15:03
Book Review by Garret Martin -- European Affairs Editor at Large

On both sides of the Atlantic, governments and academia are becoming increasingly vocal about educational “challenges” – by which they mean both the academic performance of their young people and also their ability to attract foreign students to bring their talents (and usually full tuition payments) to Western institutions of higher learning.

UPDATE: In the last eight months, Somali-based piracy has expanded – despite the US-European patrolling operations – but attacks have become less successful, due to improved defenses on tankers. The major scholarly journal Geopolicity published a report concluding that the Somalian pirates were merely acting as "profit-maximizing entrepreneurs," and as such unlikely to abandon piracy. In fact, as illustrated by the Geopolicity map below, pirates expanded their operational range via the use of motherships from which to launch smaller skiffs. A full synopsis of the report is available at the bottom. (6/8/11)